What Is Your Child Educationally Entitled To?

School districts are required to provide all students with a Free and Appropriate Public Education, often times referred to as "FAPE". What constitutes "appropriate" is a point of much contention between parents, school districts and attorneys alike. Therefore, it has been left up to the courts to shed more light on what actually constitutes an appropriate public education. Located below is a brief glimpse into how different courts have weighed in on this discussion. In determining whether the Local Education Agency has offered Student a FAPE, the proper focus is on the adequacy of the offer of placement.[1] If a student fails to make progress within a reasonable period of time, the LEA must convene an IEP meeting to address the student's lack of progress.[2] A LEA's continuation of inadequate services will almost certainly be regarded as a denial of FAPE. [3]

Based upon the analysis above, school districts must provide each Student with a individual education program designed to meet their unique needs, and this specialized program must provide each student with the opportunity to make substantive educational progress. Determining which type of educational program will meet a student's unique educational needs and subsequently allow them to make educational progress again has proven to a point of contention between both parents and school districts. A specific area of disagreement usually centers on which related services which may be necessary to meet a child's unique needs. Examples of these related services include: Language and Speech therapy to assist with any language concerns, Occupational Therapy which may assist with fine motor, gross motor, or sensory concerns, or services such as behavioral intervention services which can help students with a number of behavioral concerns.

As you can probably tell, the law leaves many issues up for interpretation as to what a student may or may not be entitled to. This leaves parents in the difficult situation of trying to determine whether or not their school district is abiding by their legal duty to provide each student with an adequate opportunity to make educational progress. If you have any questions regarding the appropriateness of your child's educational plan please contact Augustin Egelsee.

We welcome your participation in the discussions on this blog. Feel free to comment on posts that interest you.

Contact Our Office

Contact us by email or call us at 714-602-1498 or 866-781-7723 (toll free) for more information.

The use of the Internet or this form for communication with the firm or any individual member of the firm does not establish an attorney-client relationship. Confidential or time-sensitive information should not be sent through this form.